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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22430773">Simmer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megalomaniacal/pseuds/Megalomaniacal'>Megalomaniacal</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Heavy Rain</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Murder, Song Lyrics, Songfic, Stabbing, Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:35:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,653</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22430773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megalomaniacal/pseuds/Megalomaniacal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>And if my child needed protection<br/>From a fucker like that man<br/>I'd sooner gut him<br/>Cause nothing cuts like a mother</i>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Scott Shelby/Lauren Winter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Simmer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written in like 30 mins while listening to simmer by Hayley Williams on repeat sorry</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Rage is a quiet thing</em>
</p><p>“Scott Shelby.” She hissed, her hands shaking. It was raining, pouring. Heavy rain, always the heavy rain, soaking into her hair and clothes and skin, chilling her to the bone. Her voice was even, calm, despite the rage boiling just beneath it. It was readable in her expression.</p><p>
  <em>You think that you've tamed it</em><br/>
<em>But it's just lying in wait</em>
</p><p>“I swore on my son’s grave to kill the man who murdered him.” She reminded him. “And now he stands in front of me.”</p><p>
  <em>Oh, rage</em><br/>
<em>Is it in our veins?</em><br/>
<em>Feel it in my face when I least expect it</em>
</p><p>Scott reached out, placing a hand on the side of her face. Caressing her cheek, like he had done so many times before. Before she knew he killed her child. Her son, her only joy in the world where her lovers beat her, where her livelihood came from being used and abused by anyone who could afford it.</p><p>
  <em>Give in</em>
</p><p>She pulled out her gun, pointing at him.</p><p>
  <em>Control</em><br/>
<em>There's so many ways to give in</em>
</p><p>“You’re going to listen to me, Scott.” She ordered. “You’re going to do exactly what I say, or I’ll blow your brains out all over this fucking sidewalk. Got it?”</p><p>Scott nodded slowly.</p><p>
  <em>Eyes closed</em><br/>
<em>Another way to make it to ten</em><br/>
<em>Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?</em>
</p><p>“You’re going to close your eyes and turn around.” She ordered, and he obeyed, letting her watch him close his eyes before he turned. She pressed the gun to the back of his head. “Walk. Forward. I have a place for us to be.”</p><p>
  <em>Gotta simmer simmer simmer simmer simmer down</em>
</p><p>The streetlights flickered, but they were close to where she needed to be. The warehouse, the building with the grate where her son had been trapped, had been drowned and killed. Had choked and lost his life in the heavy rain. Her anger pumped through her veins, a steady thrum of red-hot rage. “Lay down.” She ordered.</p><p>
  <em>Control</em><br/>
<em>There's so many ways to give in</em><br/>
<em>Eyes closed</em><br/>
<em>Another way to make it to ten</em>
</p><p>“Lay down on your back.” She ordered. “And keep your eyes shut. Now.”</p><p>Scott lowered himself to the floor, recognition flickering over his expression as his back pressed against the bars of the grate under which he’d trapped so many innocents. There was the sound of something clatter to the floor, and then Lauren’s weight settled on top of him. He opened his eyes then, looking up in confusion at her. She didn’t look back at him, swiftly moving to tie his wrists tightly to the metal bars.</p><p>
  <em>Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?</em><br/>
<em>Gotta simmer simmer simmer simmer simmer down</em>
</p><p>“Lauren, what are you-“</p><p>A soaked wad of fabric was grabbed from the floor and shoved into his mouth, dirty rainwater dripping from the corners of his mouth as it oozed out of the rag from the pressure. She took a deep breath, audible in its intensity, then exhaled slowly. She needed to calm the heat welling and rushing inside her.</p><p>
  <em>If I had seen my reflection</em><br/>
<em>As something more precious</em><br/>
<em>He would've never</em>
</p><p>“You held me in your arms. As if I meant something to you. Were you thinking of him when you did that? When you held me, when you kissed me, Scott? Did you think of my Johnny when we said goodbye? When I let my guard down around you?” She wanted to tear him apart, piece by piece, shred by shred.</p><p>She stroked his face, leaning down, pressing her lips to his. They were softer than those of the men who’d hurt her in the past. She pulled away, stood up and stepped back. “If you didn’t think of him when you kissed me before, I’m sure you did now.” She pulled a knife from a holster on her belt. One Scott hadn’t seen before, if the shock in his expression was any indication.</p><p>
  <em>And if my child needed protection</em><br/>
<em>From a fucker like that man</em><br/>
<em>I'd sooner gut him</em><br/>
<em>Cause nothing cuts like a mother</em>
</p><p>Lauren glared down at him, white-knuckled on the hand holding the knife. It glinted in the hints of moonlight coming into the old warehouse, her whole body trembling with rage. “You were the last one to see him alive. What did he look like in his last moments? Scared? Confused? Did he cry for his mother? Did he beg not to die? Or was he too busy choking on the fucking rain water?”</p><p>
  <em>Give in</em>
</p><p>She fell to her knees and slashed the knife down, driving it into his gut, wrenching it out before doing it again. He screamed, the soaked rag in his mouth muffling the sound. Her eyes were wide, hot with rage, brimming with so much anger that the red she was seeing was almost visible in her irises.</p><p>
  <em>Control</em><br/>
<em>There's so many ways to give in</em>
</p><p>“You could’ve handled your grief in any other way! You could’ve done anything else! But you killed children, innocent children! You killed my child!” She wrenched out the knife and threw it to the floor, slamming her fist against his chest, and then her other, until she was punching him over and over. “You killed him! And you looked me in the eyes and swore to help me get revenge on the man who did it!”</p><p>
  <em>Eyes closed</em>
</p><p>Scott’s eyes went impossibly wide before squeezing shut at the pain, writhing against the ropes holding him down.</p><p>
  <em>Another way to make it to ten</em><br/>
<em>Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?</em>
</p><p>“I’m going to kill you! Do you feel how he felt? Do you feel hopeless, drowned, alone? Cold and scared? Do you feel that, Scott?” She took deep, heaving breaths, eyes wide and hands curled into fists so tight that her nails were breaking into her own skin.</p><p>
  <em>Simmer simmer simmer simmer simmer down</em>
</p><p>Deep breaths. She took more, her hands and body trembling worse with each one. Inhale, exhale. Inhale. Exhale. She tried to calm herself down. She inhaled again.</p><p>
  <em>Control</em><br/>
<em>There's so many ways to give in</em>
</p><p>On the exhale, she sobbed.</p><p>“I trusted you!” She slammed a fist down onto the stab wound, shuddering at the sound of pain.</p><p>
  <em>Eyes closed</em><br/>
<em>Another way to make it to ten</em><br/>
<em>Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?</em>
</p><p>“I’m angry! I’m so angry, Scott, yet I can’t bring myself to enjoy hurting others! Unlike you! You were angry, you were hurt, and so you made others feel how you felt! My son being gone feels like my heart was torn out of my chest!” She screamed, eyes shut, voice shaking and cracking with emotion. “And yet I can’t gain any joy from hearing you deal with the pain I’ve been feeling every day since I lost him!”</p><p>
  <em>Simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer</em><br/>
<em>Gotta simmer simmer simmer simmer simmer down</em>
</p><p>“How could you love me? How could you do that and live with yourself, knowing you took away the only good thing I ever had?”</p><p>
  <em>Wrap yourself in petals</em><br/>
<em>Wrap yourself in petals</em><br/>
<em>Wrap yourself in petals for armor</em><br/>
<em>Petals for armor</em>
</p><p>“You held me! You held me in your arms, you kissed me, all while knowing how you hurt me! How you ruined my fucking life!” She reached for the knife again, holding it in both hands, trembling. “I thought I protected myself. I thought I built walls, and you tore them down like they were flower petals instead of bricks. You made me love you, when you were the person I hated more than anyone else in the world!”</p><p>She lifted the knife, watching the fear fill Scott’s eyes again.</p><p>
  <em>Give in</em>
</p><p>She brought the knife down. “I hate you!”</p><p>She lifted it, bringing it down again.</p><p>And again.</p><p>And again.</p><p>
  <em>Control</em><br/>
<em>There's so many ways to give in</em><br/>
<em>Eyes closed</em>
</p><p>“I hate you! I hate you!” She screamed, tears dripping down her cheeks as she let her eyes fall shut and the knife clatter to the floor. “You took my Johnny from me! You took my son! The only thing that mattered!”</p><p>Another way to make it to 10<br/>
Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?</p><p>She pulled the rag from his mouth, letting him gasp for air and then howl in pain. Rage continued to rush in her veins, filling her ears so she couldn’t hear a word he said. Was he asking for mercy? Was he just screaming in pain? She couldn’t tell. She didn’t care. He hurt her. He killed her son. He murdered her child, then had the audacity to love her.</p><p>
  <em>Simmer simmer simmer simmer simmer down</em>
</p><p>“You’re going to die by my hands, Scott Shelby. You’re going to die where you killed so many others.”</p><p>
  <em>Control</em><br/>
<em>There's so many ways to give in</em><br/>
<em>Eyes closed</em><br/>
<em>Another way to make it to ten</em><br/>
<em>Oh, how to draw the line between wrath and mercy?</em>
</p><p>She picked up the knife, bringing it down one last time at the center of his chest, watching as his eyes went wide and then blank, as the life left his body. She stood on shaking legs, turning around. As she left the warehouse, she didn’t turn around. She let out a deep breath, feeling rage seep out of her like the life had seeped out of Scott. The red in the edges of her vision subsided. The man who murdered her son was gone. The man she’d somehow loved, not knowing what he’d done. He was gone.</p><p>It was okay. He was gone. He’d paid for what he’d done.</p><p>She let out another breath, and fell to her knees on the pavement, soaking in the heavy rain falling outside the warehouse. She was alone.</p><p>
  <em>Gotta simmer, simmer, simmer...</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Catch me writing a heavy rain fic in 2020 and posting it while knowing very well no one is gonna read it</p></blockquote></div></div>
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